Performance assessment of extensive green roof runoff flow and quality control capacity based on pilot experiments

Green roof is an important measure in “Sponge Cities” to reduce the runoff and improve the runoff quality. The runoff quantity and quality control capacity of five types of extensive green roofs (EGRs) were analyzed in Beijing for 51 nature rainfall events and 6 simulated events from July 2017 to October 2018. Different module scales (sizes) and substrate depths were examined to study their correlation to runoff retention, peak flow reduction, pollutant event mean concentration (EMC) and load reduction performance of EGRs. In general, both the single-field rainfall events and the long-term monitoring showed that as the module scale and substrate thickness increased, the retention capacity of the EGRs increased. As the module scale increased, the peak flow reduction rate (Pfrr) of the EGR modules increased, while the thickness of the substrate appeared to have less of an effect on Pfrr. When water quality effect was considered, compared with module scale, the substrate thickness had a more obvious effect on the average EMC of different pollutants. As the substrate thickness increased, the EMC of pollutants decreased. Under six simulated design rainfalls, EMC reduction rate of suspended solid (SS) of all types of EGRs ranged from 64.3%–73.1% while no reduction was found in the EMC of chemical oxygen demand (COD). The EMC trends of ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were almost the same, and their EMCs decreased with increasing total rainfall depth. When the pollutant load was considered, the EGRs in this study were a sink of NH4+-N, NO3−-N, TN, and TP but a source of COD. [Display omitted] •Runoff quantity and quality effect of extensive green roofs (EGRs) was conducted.•Both EGR scale and substrate thickness affected EGRs' runoff retention capacity.•EGRs had strong capacity to reduce concentration and pollutant load of SS.•The concentration of COD, N and P in EGR runoff was higher than that in normal roof.•The EGRs were the sink of TN, NH4+-N, NO3−-N and TP but the source of COD.